Breakfast With Santa and the Zoo Run for Children's "Stars" at Chic-Fil-A in Leeds, Alabama

On Saturday December the 8th, 2018, Cycle Connections teamed up with Chic-Fil-A in Leeds Alabama to bring breakfast with Santa to the "Stars" of the Zoo Run Safari for Children's event from September.

At the event in September, manager, Shannon at the Chic-Fil-A store became one of the sponsors and donated a gift to one of the families in the form of a dinner, which she took to their HOME because the recipient of that dinner had a little princess warrior, Ms. Shelby Jernigan, that is battling 5 brain tumors, and it was just easier on the family to have it brought to the house. That's what you call going over and beyond your duties, but it was a labor of love, I'm sure.

Shannon had the same enthusiasm about giving back to these kids as we do, she committed on that day to be one of our sponsors for the up coming Zoo Run events and she came up with the idea of the breakfast with Santa as another way for us to help give these kids a day to just be a kid.

We discovered Santa at the last bike night of the season for the Faith Riders. He was helping to feed the crowd. We met him and told him how much he looked like Santa, to which he responded that he WAS Santa, had the suit, Mrs. Clause and a sleigh!! He is Santa for the Outlet Shops around here and other places, but since this was for the kids, he would come do the breakfast for us free of charge! He left us and went and played Santa at the Outlet shops until late in the afternoon that day.

It was a rainy, dreary day to be getting out, and we hated that the families had to travel in it as some of them had to come from an hour or more away, but they were more than eager to do so, and the kids were so excited about it that they spent the night before creating their list's to bring to Santa.

The store had been sectioned off so as to make for a more private affair for the families, and they disinfected the playground area for the kids prior to them going in. Shannon had also gotten Starshine Faces to come do some awesome balloons for the kids, and on top of having a breakfast spread for us all, she also had gift bags for each of the Stars AND their siblings; a cup with their names on it and a Chic-Fil-A cow. I had to have one of the cows! She also had crafts for them to do and our friends Chandler Champion (Miss Alabama 2013) and her sister Zoë (Miss Jefferson County Outstanding Teen 2019 crowned in October and will compete in Miss Alabama Outstanding Teen in March) who were also on hand at the ride in September. They are two very beautiful, talented and kind hearted, giving girls, who we have been blessed with for these kids; they really enjoy their time with them as much as the kids enjoy having them.

We had an awesome morning with ALL them and the families got to take away some really beautiful pictures and memories of the day.

We enjoyed the looks on peoples faces when we took Santa out into the store to share him with the rest of the folks there, they got a kick out of it too, and they too got some really cool pictures with Santa.

We thank Chic-Fil-A for doing this for these kids, we thank the families for coming out and for the kids for sharing their time with us, the Champion ladies, the Balloon maker and of course Santa. We look forward to doing this again next year and hope that everyone had a wonderful, Blessed Christmas!